Paladins of Aether and Chaos: Volume 2: The War
by PhoenixRavenStar
Summary: Picking up where the prior story left off but as the fourth Scythe war begin; Thalia, Luke, Percy and Annabeth race to find the lost Paladin Master, the sorcerer, Otheria. Asgard awaits the Olympians and the campers.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Location: Paladin space: Percy's sector: Beledorn

Jason slammed his sword into the ground and the Olympians and campers vanished in a bright flash of light, he fell to his knees to be caught by Reyna. He was then lifted up by Bobby and Orion, the latter saying "sleep on the way sparky, you need to sleep." Jason muttered an insult in Latin which had Bobby laughing. Mari looked from the hanger of her ship which was a larger transport ship with guard, heading the longer route to Chaos City with Zoe, Theseus and Thor being dropped off on the way. Bianca placed her hand on her 'underlings' shoulder saying calmly "they will all be fine Mari, we have our own duty to do."

Nico, Piper and Leo were all wearing Paladin Armour as they stood talking softly for preparing the sector for the Scythe fleet that was on its way with the purpose of invasion. Beledorn was the only planet of any importance which the Scythe knew about, the computers and all backups were loaded onto ships heading to Chaos City with Bianca and the hunters. Percy strode forward, his armour was a simple marine issue from the war, not as good as his prior one but he refused to wear the armour he had been issued as Alpha. Leo had melted it down without even asking and used to make modifications to the immortal campers' armour and weaponry. Annabeth was beside Percy, his arm around her waist as they talked softly. Leo raised an eyebrow as did Nico while Piper smiled brightly and coming over, the couple hugged her. Thalia and Luke also did as well though Luke just nodded to Leo and Nico, Percy giving Nico a one armed hug then fist bumped with Leo saying "we'll be as quick as we can." Leo rolled his eyes as Nico replied solemnly "tell her she was right about Mari." Piper looked at him saying amused "Mari is as old as you, _if_ we count the years in the casino. Otheria herself is ancient, though, all the years she spent sleeping don't really count." Annabeth looked amazed at this then turned to Thalia who shrugged saying "okay. Olympians left yesterday right?" Leo nodded "yep there in Asgard by now. Jason got them part way there so Heimdall could use the bifrost to take them the rest. He's sleeping it off on the way to his assignment." With a brief goodbye Percy and Luke entered the ship which was taking them to their destination and hopefully back. It was the same ship that Nico used to get out of his taken over station, his only words when he handed Percy the command codes were '_try and stay alive_.' Thor flew over suddenly, he pulled Percy and then Luke into a tight hug booming out "we must meet again and talk of our war stories my friends." Luke winced; Percy had gone to fire up the engines with Annabeth and Thalia before he could respond so Luke promised to go to Asgard when it was all over and recite his war stories.

Location: Asgardian space: Asgard: Bifrost

Athena was stunned at the sight of the golden city of Asgard as was Artemis. An old one-eyed man met them with a stunningly beautiful woman with long brown hair and kind eyes, they looked similar to Thor, they introduced themselves as Odin and Frigga and they both gave off a strong aura of power. The orange eyed man who had met them introduced himself as Heimdall then said "welcome to Asgard, Olympians and demi-gods of Greece and Rome." One of Athena's children hesitantly asked about the bifrost and Heimdall replied briefly but blinked when Mark and Jack started rapidly asking questions about Asgard and Thor. Frigga laughed and offered to answer their questions, the two children grabbing onto her offered hands and talking to her rapidly, Zeus and Poseidon shocked at her open acceptance, both being used to their wives hostility to their children.

A black haired woman stepped forwards and introduced herself as Sif, goddess of war and Thor's wife. After the Asgardians were introduced, Athena quickly struck up a conversation with her fellow war goddess. Heimdall just said "you wish to travel to find Loki." Artemis squared her shoulders, her bow in her hands as she replied "yes, to help Zoe, Thalia and the only man I respect." Odin looked at Apollo then said "come, we will host you in my hall, a feast awaits you. When we can pinpoint Loki we will send you." Frigga was merrily entertaining the younger demi-god children as Katie glided forwards and gently picked her youngest sibling up with the littlest daughter of Apollo, then began, with Frigga, shepherding the children to the chariot on which they would be taken to the palace. When she came back, she looked at Sif who said confused "why do you not fight with your friends?" Katie replied honestly "I fought in two wars in two years as a demigod. I'm not Clarisse or Annabeth who are children of deities of war or Percy, Thalia, Nico, Jason and Luke who all are skilled at it. I keep the peace at home until they return though I failed once, and if the enemy comes, I am the last defence." Sif nodded as Katie left with the others, Odin saying with respect "a rare child, one who will stay out of the conflict by choice with dignity and not out of fear." Demeter looked slightly proud at her daughter who was trying to convince Mark and Jack to calm down as Mark had decided he wanted to be carried so had climbed onto her back.

Hera was amazed as she talked to Frigga at the feast, the woman spoke of her husband's illegitimate children with a calm and oddly fond tone as she explained "Odin is my husband but he is also my king and a man. When the demigods had committed their deeds I understood why he had sired them. I will not blame the children." She then proceeded to talk fondly to Mark who had stayed by her side since she had indulged him on the bifrost, the young child son of Poseidon having wormed their way into her heart, Hera noticed then that all the children were being welcomed warmly as were the warriors. The healers out of Apollo's children were talking with their father and an Asgardian goddess while Artemis and Athena had apparently started a conversation with Odin. Sif was with Jack who was showing her his abilities with lightning to her and a few other Asgardians, Frigga just said "children are rare here. We do not venture off Asgard often and even then, demi-gods of our Parthenon rarely come here. Having so many children in our halls is a rare thing indeed." Hera nodded and nodded to Zeus who was talking to Poseidon and Hades. The latter being cautiously accepted as Sif had explained their death goddess rarely came to Asgard as she had a long standing grudge with Thor for an incident that Sif would not mention though she did say it was Thor's fault.

Location: Scythe Space: Systiene System: Systeine

Luke smiled disarmingly at Thalia as he shrugged off her help to land the ship, entering the Systiene System the two immortal demi-gods looked at the debris from the former inhabited planets, Annabeth saying quietly "how many were there?" Luke replied honestly "the Systiene System had five inhabited planets. The smallest was the capital and Otheria's home world. Look for yourself." He pointed at the half shrouded planet in front of them, its landscape was mostly blackened bar one small continent which was marred by a crater hole which went incredibly deep into the planet, the area was full of asteroid rocks. Percy said "we'll start on the old estate. Rion mentioned it being left untouched during his imprisonment." Luke spoke fondly but with sadness "I remember it. Do you remember when you dumped a lake on Cazar because he had woke you up?" Percy laughed at that then grinning replied "indeed. Remember when Cazar walked into Nico's room once when he and Otheria were in there sleeping?" Annabeth laughed as did Thalia and Luke, Thalia was straight faced as she said "Artemis would not like that." Luke shrugged and kissed her cheek impulsively causing her to blush before she hit him around the head.

As the ship shook they realised Systiene was surrounded by a Scythe fleet, cursing Luke and Percy ran to the controls, having to manually keep the shields online and land further from the retreat than they had planned. They narrowly avoided being seen or crashing into a ship before they landed on the planet's surface but the ship shook when, trying to land outside the city, they were hit by a cannon blast of sorts that had them in a skidding crash. Thalia looked at Percy when the ship stopped suddenly, Annabeth saying "is everyone alright?" Luke said to Percy "why is it that whenever it's you, Theseus or I in a ship, we always crash it?" Percy shrugged but winced, Annabeth then noticed that his sword was digging into his back. Standing up after unlocking the straps, the four looked at the screens of the ship that had not cracked. Thalia saying hesitantly "guys… Does this screen show outside?" Percy turned and looking where she was said "yes that screen does Thalia, why?" Luke went over and then swore in Greek, turning to Percy he said "monsters. Some sort of humanoid things with runes carved into their skin around Ares' height, just as much muscle and probably about as friendly as Zeus is to us when we're in the air." Percy chuckled and then drew Aquarius, it was glowing as Annabeth looked at it, then saw that Percy had spun it around, then stopped when it glowed stronger. Thalia saying sarcastically "the sword, really Kelp head?" Luke shrugged saying "it isn't the most idiotic thing we've done. Let's get to the small house near where we have crashed. There will be something I can hotwire for transport to the estate." Percy nodded and sheathed his sword, Annabeth noticing how the armour clicked slightly as he pushed it in the make shift sheathe. Luke saying thoughtfully "I preferred your old armour." Percy glared at him replying "I prefer my old armour, this stuff is not right."

Exploring the ship to pick up their bags and stuffing medical supplies in them Annabeth couldn't help but notice that, through the windows, Systiene was beautiful and seemed to be… tainted in a way that she did not understand. Percy seemed to edgy on the planet while Thalia and Luke were fine, Percy's eyes held a haunted look, he had seen the system burn because he had lost control of Aquarius then he and the others had been punished for a thousand years. The four met up, Annabeth carrying a small rucksack while Thalia asked "how are we getting out?" Percy smirked as he pointed up, revealing an air shaft, Luke muttering something about '_finally become useful_.' Percy ignored him and climbed up, his armour clicking back slightly as he pressed his flesh hand against the screen, the computer opening the air lock, Thalia climbed out next, as soon as she got near the top she jumped up and activated her bow, gesturing for Luke and Annabeth to follow. Luke did so, Annabeth following, despite being an experienced knife fighter Annabeth got the feeling that longer ranged weaponry was better such as a bow or the boys' swords.

The four then looked down to see that the mutant beasts had caught their scents and were starting to circle the ship. Percy just swore quietly then looking around said, "Aquarius is useless, I really don't want to send up a flare to the scythe." Luke activated Thalia's spear and threw it at one of the mutants, impaling it thoroughly so that it went right through, putting one of them out of the coming battle of four against six. Luke drew his sword and when one mutant jumped, he slashed its head off with a single overpowered strike that he didn't even have to stop for before continuing to fight, Annabeth realised that Percy was telling the truth earlier, the higher class Paladins had their bodies enhanced. Thalia just fired arrows at the mutant beings' eyes, sending them scuttling. After they were gone, Percy said "Come on. There's small farm over there; hopefully there will be a functional transport." Percy jumped off the ship followed by Annabeth, Luke looked at Thalia, gesturing for her to go first, she did.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Location: Paladin space: Percy's sector: Beledorn

Nico looked at the display on the screen in front of him, cursing the day he agreed to become a head of a section as he was inundated with paperwork. Most of the diplomats had been fostered off to their secondary sections with little effort leaving Piper to organise the planetary governments in the sector for siege, something that no one wanted to do. The remaining members of the sorcerer section were all present at Beledorn, currently they were forming shields around the base, Nico was angry that magic had fallen out of common knowledge since Systiene's destruction with only 60 of the 3,000 sorcerer members of the Paladins surviving the battle, none of the best sorcerers, who were with Otheria and Percy, survived and so they had lost a lot of the ancient arcane knowledge with a majority of the bloodlines able to use it with the destruction of the Systiene system. The remainder had mostly left the Paladins, setting up new lives for their people whose descendents had flocked to the Scythe.

Nico sighed, he was in control of sending off the few remaining higher level assassins and the remaining assassin veterans to either retrieve information or start taking control of squads of newer recruits that had not seen too much action, referred to as 'shinnies' by Luke on one occasion, he had quickly retracted it when Bianca had glared, she was the one who looked over the few assassin recruits he got. Looking over a report quickly he saw that some assassins had gathered together in Aether's sphere from where the primordial was dealing with them. Leo had sent up a request that the Paladins with faulty or damaged weaponry sent them down so it could be repaired, Jason's actions in accidently teleporting Leo's forgers to Beledorn meant that at least they would be more ready when the Scythe fleet arrived, but Nico had sent a majority of them off, split to help the others. They had all been happy that Percy was back, his skill with strategy may not be that of Annabeth's, Theseus', but he was the best fighter they had and probably the only person who could fight Cazar. "General?" Nico turned to see one of his '_underlings'_ who said that the on sight leader of the marines was asking after him.

Leo looked at the forge in front of him despite being a Paladin Master he had never really taken part in the war. Unlike Jason, Luke, Otheria, Perseus, Cazar, Percy and Nico he did not fight on the front lines constantly, Leo was alike to Zoe, Bianca and Zoe, they led small teams on dangerous missions to retrieve information or in Leo's case, generally blow important buildings up with some new weaponry he had designed, he had led battles, earning the uncreative moniker '_fire bringer'_. Orion had taken a multiple number of roles during the wars but he had been referred to as the '_hunter'_, everyone had been stretched to their limits, Cazar had started cracking during the second war, Piper had been on the front lines right beside Jason until the second war when Theseus pulled her out to organise refugees and the army itself she had gained the title '_one of beauty' _from her actions, she was the only one with a moniker that actually had nothing to do with war or insulting, Percy had never recovered from the time he earned his least favoured one 'oath breaker.' Otheria and Zoe were known as the 'ladies of war' for their actions in holding their own against astronomical odds, Otheria was also known as being highly terrifying as she battled her father one on one and came out on top admittedly because neither wanted to harm the other and the two actually had allowed the first possible thing to distract them from the battle.

Location: Asgardian space: Asgard: Royal Palace

Sif showed the Olympians to the statues of heroes, a few of Asgard had decided to fight in the Scythe wars and those that had died were remembered with all those who had died true heroic deaths. Hestia asked if Otheria was present and Sif shook her head replying "only those born in the nine realms are remembered here, a portrait exists though, I will show thee if you wish." Hestia nodded as did Hades who paused before asking "how close were Nico and Otheria?" Sif looked at him with sad eyes as she said "they were to be bonded here… your version is marriage I believe." Hades was still as he realised how much his eldest son had lost. Sif said "Otheria was fostered on Asgard for a time as a child, the high nobility of the Systienians live nearly as long as my people do, she herself bound her own power with the allfather, I believe it to be completely released now if she has been asleep for so long, even longer than when she placed the bindings on herself, she will probably be exhausted though, Loki will be better informed than I am." Athena spoke thoughtfully "so when you were asked to join the war as a nation… They sent Otheria to plead on behalf of the friendship she had made when she was a child?" Sif shook her head saying "no, Otheria was constantly fighting on the front lines with the son of Sally and the others. They sent the daughter of Aphrodite, Piper, who was later married here to her lover, Jason, here during the peace years between the first and second wars." Sif had led the group to a darkened corridor, lighting the torches at the sides magically she showed them a wall length portrait of young girl with a slightly younger Thor and who the group guessed was Loki and Sif, but all three Asgardians were younger, only slightly though. The girl was around 6 years old and just as beautiful as the raven haired Sif, Aphrodite just said "Nico has good taste." Sif nodded and then said to Zeus "your children leave on the bifrost in a few hours, do you wish to see them off or continue exploring?" Poseidon and Hera opted to return to their rooms as did Hades and Zeus while Aphrodite went to see Ares fight the Asgardian warriors in the training grounds. Hestia went with Athena and Hermes to see the twin Olympians off while Hephases was forging with the Asgardian smiths.

Artemis looked at herself in the glimpse she caught in the fountain's water; she was wearing Asgardian winter clothes with a fur lined cloak which Sif had given her. Apollo wore a similar outfit but unlike Apollo's hers had a hood and was lined with fur, Apollo having ended up being given more as he was the god of the sun and he really didn't like the cold. Mounting their horses, both of the two rode towards the bifrost where Heimdall awaited them with Hestia, Athena, Sif and Hermes. Hermes giving Apollo a 'bro-hug' as Sif said to Artemis "Loki is a trickster and a skilled illusionist you both must be on your guard." Artemis nodded and touched her bow which glowed in the light, Athena saying "we will meet you when you return" Hestia only adding "be careful please." As Heimdall activated the bifrost he said "a warning of Loki, he has a temperamental nature. You may need to battle him and succeed before he will listen to you." The twins nodded and vanished to Jodenehim.

Location: Paladin space: Chaos City: First Base

Bianca looked at the screen as they entered her old office on the base, activating the floors for the scouts and assassins was easy enough using her codes but she found that the energy would only flow to these sections. Cursing, she realised that everyone's codes were needed. She tried a different one "activation code, reorganise, password 134 Pluto Nico Hades Hazel." It was probably the oddest password to have as a 'backup' password that allowed ultimate access but only Nico, Percy, Aether and Bianca knew it, the screen flashed showing the words 'access denied' Bianca then realised that only Otheria or probably Percy and Nico could override the security. Swearing in Greek she banged her head against the table before entering the hunters onto the placement test that would take place the next day after they had gotten settled in.

Bianca sighed before leaving her office to see if she could enter the old command centre in the vain hope of playing around with the computers there, Otheria was truly paranoid when it came to security but Bianca had the feeling that Otheria had suspected Cazar was snapping during the war when she had added all the extra security that and it was after the bombing when they had rebuilt the place. Mari entered the corridor heading to the old command centre, the base was currently only inhabited by the hunters and a few others, most of the base was still shut down from the war, only Bianca's codes had managed to activated the two floors they were in at the moment. Swearing Bianca slammed her hands against the screen, turning to Mari she said "any word from Percy and Nico?" Mari shook her head, Bianca closed her eyes saying angrily "why didn't we ask Percy for the command codes? I'm only in the first layer of security using all Paladin codes I knew at the time, Otheria had added extra layers programmed to her, Percy, Nico or Lord Chaos himself." Mari winced but realised how much trouble this would be.

The hunters looked at each other then the metal doors in front of them, Mari was running the simulation on the computer next door as Bianca met them in simple black uniform that clung to her skin like a second layer, she just said "one can go at a time." Thalia's second, Phoebe had walked in first and came out through the other exit, passing the simulation to become a scout. Later, Mari had been surprised when the two daughter's of Hetecate who were hunters had become members of the Sorcerer' section, the first in a thousand years but she had to tell them that they would not be assigned mentors just yet but they would be allowed access to some tomes that were in the library. Most of the hunters became either scouts or assassins with the daughter of Zeus, Elizabeth, becoming a pilot while Phoebe, a daughter of Ares and currently the eldest of the hunters, had become a marine. Two huntresses, daughters of Hephases and Athena, became inventors. Mari took the assassins to the area where the assassins had trained while the scouts stayed at the simulator, one of the human sized robots taking the others to their places, Bianca giving one of each group a headset each to contact each other.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Location: Paladin space: Jason's sector: HQ of the IGA forces

Zoe and Thor were currently sitting on chairs as Theseus tried to get the political leaders of the Intergalactic alliance to give the Paladins usage of their armies before the generals strangled their leaders themselves. As one directed a comment about the current Paladin leaders, who should have apparently been 'executed for crimes against the galaxy' for the Systiene System disaster, Zoe stood up and her chair clattered to the floor. Striding over she grabbed the president's neck and lifting him up around three inches, growled out "I am over four thousand years old. I was an immortal, guarding my father's prison and the apples of Hera, I watched the giant wars occur and I fought in them beside my former lady. I am a veteran of countless battles and many wars, do not insult me or those who are under my protection." The president nodded rapidly and stuttered out an apology when Zoe let him go.

Thor spoke firmly "I will go to the skybridge." Theseus nodded solemnly as one general said "I'll go with you your highness." The politicians were mostly up in arms until the eldest, an old half-Zinvorn, a race of long lived people driven to near extinction, he had not spoken throughout the meeting until he said "my grandmother told me stories of the day the Scythe destroyed her home and killed her family when she was just a child." The young man beside him snorted saying "they were stories, the Scythe now are just a small terrorist group who got lucky." Zoe growled as Thesues said wisely in a patient tone, "you have forgotten the Scythe and the terror they wrecked. The military and those of us still affected have not, the Scythe are being now led by Gaia and Kronus with other titans helping them. I am more worried now than I was during the last wars. The third war cost us around 35,000 Paladins and over 100, 000 civilians." The politicians looked horrified at this as Zoe said softly "we lost an** entire section** of the Paladins, then on top of that we lost **half** **the** **marines** **and** **pilots** with a **quarter **of the** navy**." The politicians looked at each other, then they realised who much trouble they were actually in. Thesues continued "The scouts and assassins have been nearly wiped out when the station was attacked; those that remain are being placed on active duty. The diplomats alive are currently on their secondary sector. We are stretched to our limits; we never recovered from the scythe wars and are currently bogged down with the restrictions that have been placed on us and couple this with the fact that we have lost a majority of our veterans and are going into a war with not even half of our original force…"

The old man said solemnly "my people have already prepared our army and placed our system with those nearby on watch with the ships we can. Let us worry about our systems you worry about pushing the Scythe out." Theseus nodded relief in his eyes as Thor left to get a shuttle to his ship from where he would go to the Skybridge.

Location: Paladin space: Piper's sector: Paladin Fleet

Orion looked at Clarisse who had been arguing with the primordial for a few minutes before he had walked in and Aether put his foot down saying "you are needed on Chaos City to organise the military gathering there." Orion nodded grudgingly before the holo-image went down and Orion ordered his ship and another to turn back on full speed to Chaos city after messaging the other commanders. Jason ordering them to go, he would take command with Perseus and the immortal campers. He then paled as a screen was handed to him, Clarisse saying "what is it?" Jason replied solemnly "the scythe fleet has been sighted from Beledorn. Piper, Leo and Nico now are depending on the others to get there soon." Orion smiled slightly saying "this is my brother we're talking about, his hare-brained schemes somehow work out and if everything goes badly, well, they can handle themselves." Jason shot him a dry look before forcing himself to relax as he said "I really wish we had the Sirion." Orion asking confused "the ship? wasn't it never fully finished?" Jason nodded then the meeting ended.

Jason turned the screen off and looked out of the window from his command centre to see Orion's ship and another leave, the other ships continuing onwards until the rendezvous point where Malcome and Bobby had started a conference where the Immortal Romans with Malcome were arguing with everyone else until Perseus silenced them, explaining to Jason that Malcome had come up with an idea that the group should split in two, reinforcing Piper's sector from two starting points. Jason looked over the plan and handing it to his admiral the man agreed with a simple nod, he then said "I shall stay with Bobby and Gwen. Malcome you're in charge of two others you know you work well with, listen to your admirals, they know the sector well. Perseus, the remaining two ships are yours." The group nodded and Malcome chose, deactivating his screen with the others, then they left to start their part of the plan. Perseus deactivated his and left with his ships. Dakota squeezing his head into Bobby's holoimage to say to Jason with a smug smile "Jason, I didn't know you cared." Gwen face palmed before saying "sorry about him. It is good to work with you again." Jason felt a familiar but dulled sense of grief as the loss of Reyna came over him again. Deactivating the meeting he left Gwen to chew out Dakota telling his admiral "it's something they always do. By the way, Dakota, on no account, should be allowed any alcohol, sugar or any sort of stimulant I don't care whose orders it is to give him any, _don't!"_ The admiral nodded deciding it was best not to ask on the slightly hysterical tone his commander had and the ship continued on its journey.

Leaving the control room Jason moved to his personal room, exactly the same as everyone else's just his was smaller as there was only room for one and a desk. On the desk he found a simple pebble, he picked it up and remembered when Leo had randomly picked a few up during an exploration mission during their first years as Paladins declaring them, cheerfully, to be '_souvenirs'_ before Cazar had delightedly pointed out through the comlinks that he was about to walk into a hole as Piper had laughed. Jason sat down as memories washed over him and he shook slightly, remembering that he was going to have to fight against Cazar, the man who had escorted Piper down the aisle because they thought each other as siblings, the man who had been one of his closest friends and one of the few who could beat him in a sword fight. Cazar, who had been insanely protective of his older sister despite Otheria's rather proactive 'arguments' that she was capable of looking after herself, which he knew but he hated the idea of her dating Nico. Cazar, who even in his maddened state after the disaster had not harmed him or Piper, only going further into his madness as he was informed of Otheria's death. Cazar who Piper had spent centuries watching over in an effort to heal him.


End file.
